Graphics content, such as digital images and photographs, can be edited using imaging applications such as Adobe® Photoshop®. Anomalies in graphics can be manually removed using spot healing tools provided by such applications. Traditional spot healing techniques require a user to manually select or mark an area on an image to be replaced. For example, a spot or blemish in an image can be marked for replacement using a brush tool, such as the Spot Healing Brush in Adobe® Photoshop®. Current solutions for spot healing replace a manually selected area inside a brush with another area from the image. Currently, a user must manually select and control the brush size so that the entire spot to be healed is contained in the area marked by the brush. Existing spot healing solutions require the user to make appropriate adjustments to the brush size as spot healing progresses.
For irregularly shaped spots, a user needs to select a brush large enough to cover the whole area, or select a smaller brush size and manually fix smaller parts of the spot one at a time. Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom and Adobe® Photoshop® provide a spot healing brush tool that enables a user to select a brush size. Current spot healing techniques using the above mentioned steps and tools can work on desktop computing platforms and devices, which may allow the user to change the brush size and use a mouse or pointing device to precisely select an area of an image. However, there are issues using current techniques in some environments and platforms, such as mobile devices and applications and touch screen devices. One issue is the difficulty of precisely selecting a spot using a touch input (e.g., a tap). For example, a user may not be able to tap on the precise location of a spot on a touch screen. This issue is compounded when the complete image is displayed (zoomed-out) on a relatively small display (e.g., a screen of a mobile device). Screen space can be an issue with mobile devices, and this issue is compounded for imaging applications where a designer seeks to give the maximum space to the image on the screen. Displaying additional icons, such as tool and brush icons, on some screens can add to the complexity of a user interface, and also use screen space that would otherwise be used to display an image being edited. Another issue with existing solutions is their complexity. Users of mobile imaging applications typically expect a simple user interface with fewer things to learn. Interactions to mark an image area, and to select and adjust brush sizes add to the complexity of current spot healing workflows.
Therefore, there is a need for improved techniques for automated, accurate spot identification and spot healing. There is also a need for systems and methods for automatically identifying and healing spots in images being edited using touch inputs and in mobile environments.